The Statesman Journal reports that new technologies like drones and robotic total stations allow construction companies to be more accurate when mapping job sites, while also eliminating waste in time and materials.
According to Forbes, $160 billion a year is wasted by factors including inefficiency.
Andrew Siegmund, president of Siegmund Excavation, told the Statesman Journal that his company bought its first drone to figure out how much crushed rock was in a pile at a quarry. Since the company builds between six and eight bridges a year, the drones make the work safer by removing workers form the most dangerous are. The article says in remote locations like timber stands, the company can also map the terrain, determine the height of the trees, and learn what parts of the soil are best.
In comparison to antiquated ways of land surveying, the same can be done in a fraction of time with drone technology.
“We can come in, take some data points with the total station, fly it with the drone and we can build you a 3D model and show you what that site’s going to look like once we excavate it and level it and where your shop can sit and how many yards of dirt have to be move,” Siegmund told Statesman Journal.
According to the article, drone uses on construction site rose by 239 percent from 2017 to 2018.
“It’s made a real positive impact,” Siegmund said to the Statesman Journal. “We can better allocate our machine time, our employee time. We know, in the plans, there’s X number of yards of dirt to move.
Source: The Statesman Journal
